


Human After All

by Starofwinter



Category: Bleach
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, M/M, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26619532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starofwinter/pseuds/Starofwinter
Summary: The Arrancar stumbled to his knees, still cradling Ichigo safely against him.He could barely stay upright, but the look in his eyes was unmistakable, a desperate kind of love burning as he pleaded, "Help him.  Save him or I'll kill every last one of you Shinigami bastards."
Relationships: Grimmjow Jaegerjaques/Kurosaki Ichigo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 261





	Human After All

**Author's Note:**

> I sit down to write fluff and this is what happens

The garganta opened, and a pair of bodies fell through, uncoordinated and tangled together.

" _ Fix him, _ " Grimmjow snarled, holding Kurosaki's body to his chest. They were both soaked in blood, and it was almost impossible to tell whose it was, only red, red,  _ red _ covering both of them. The Arrancar stumbled to his knees, still cradling Ichigo safely against him.

He could barely stay upright, but the look in his eyes was unmistakable, a desperate kind of love burning as he pleaded, "Help him. Save him or I'll kill every last one of you Shinigami bastards."

Unohana was the first to reach them, partially because everyone else was too reluctant to go near what seemed like a feral Arrancar holding the body of a near-dead substitute Shinigami. "I don't need to take him from you," she said, her voice carefully kept even, "But I do need to examine him. Will you let me see him?" 

Grimmjow eyed her, wary and hard. She looked soft, but the kind of soft that meant it was deliberate. Like she knew what it meant to be hard and cruel, and she'd chosen the opposite. Somehow, it made him less reluctant to let her near. He laid Ichigo down, but didn't back off, poised to step in if she tried anything.

She glanced at Grimmjow only once before she rested a hand on Ichigo's forehead and closed her eyes. He could taste her Reitsu as it flared, the way it encompassed Ichigo's, and he had to fight his instinct to shove her away from him. 

"I need to take him back to Seireitei," she finally said, "This will take more work than I'd like to do here. I've stabilized him, it should be safe to move him. First though, I need to check your injuries."

"Fuck that," he snarled, but the flare of pain from his chest, just above his Hollow hole, said something different. He choked and black washed over his tongue - blood, something else? It tasted like ash. 

The Shinigami just smiled that unnerving smile and did something that dropped him to the ground. She pressed a hand to his chest and a wave of warmth rippled through him, taking the pain with it. "Come with me." She didn't wait, just picked Kurosaki up like he weighed nothing to carry him off, clearly expecting him to obey and trot along on her heels like a pet. The most awful part was that he did; followed her right through Seireitei without a single word, his eyes on Ichigo the entire time. His chest still ached, but it was a different kind of pain, right up where his heart should be, tight and twisting. 

He didn’t make an effort not to hover once Ichigo was laid out on a mat, still pale and small and covered in so much blood, but eventually they were alone; just the two of them and Grimmjow’s thoughts as they spiraled in on one another. It looked all wrong - Ichigo was the stronger out of the two of them, the rock Grimmjow liked to crash himself into like a wave, over and over to test himself. Things changed after that, and he went and fell in love with him, like a fucking idiot. He was strong and beautiful and too fucking perfect - and too fucking  _ human _ . Just a fucking human. And he’d made the mistake of falling in love with him.

“You gotta wake up for me, Kurosaki. I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you.” His voice was quiet and strained, terror an unfamiliar feeling as it flooded his throat and drowned his words.

Beneath his fingers, Ichigo’s hand twitched.


End file.
